Detroit in ruins | Art and design | The Observer

Beautiful architecture abandoned to decay. What fantastic bookstores, condo conversions, antique malls, mixed-use centres of community they could be if only Detroit could be turned around. Extraordinarily sad, these grand places will likely fall to the wrecking ball instead and be paved over.

The ruined Spanish-Gothic interior of the United Artists Theater in Detroit. The cinema was built in 1928 by C Howard Crane, and finally closed in 1974Photograph: Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre